My Story

I will never forget where I was on September 11th.

I was on active duty in the Navy, stationed aboard the USS Lake Champlain. I was on temporary orders to the red SA-2112 maintenance school.

It was my first day at that school on dry side San Diego Naval Base. When we reported to school, they turned on a TV up in the top left corner showing the plane wrecks into the Twin Towers.

Shortly after this, they told us that we all had to report back to our parent commands. So I went back to the USS Lake Champlain, which was docked at the Naval Station in San Diego. That night, we got underway for Operation Noble Eagle and patrolled the west coast of the US for approximately three weeks.

We came back into port, into Port Hueneme, and unloaded the rest of our armaments, pulled back in, and after about a two-week workup period, we deployed overseas for Operation Enduring Freedom for seven months and it just…it's crazy like looking back it has been 25 years and I still can remember it vividly.